2 1/2 cups oatmeal rolled oats (Quaker Quick or Old Fashioned, do not use instant)

2/3 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped pecans (can sub walnuts)

1/2 cup raisins

Method

1 Center rack in oven and preheat to 375°F. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment or Silpats. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon.

2 Combine granulated sugar with grated orange zest, set aside.

3 Heat ten tablespoons butter in small saucepan, place remaining 6 tablespoons butter in large mixing bowl. When butter is nicely browned (see: how to brown butter) and has a nutty aroma, pour over the remaining butter and mix until all butter is completely melted.

4 Add the granulated sugar and orange, brown sugar, vanilla and salt to the butter and whisk until combined. Add the egg and egg yolk. Whisk for thirty seconds and let stand for three minutes, repeat this process twice more until mixture is thick and shiny, this will enhance the flavor and texture of the cookies.

5 Working with the stand mixer, combine the wet and dry ingredients. Mix until fully incorporated. Add in the oatmeal, chocolate chips, raisins and nuts and mix well.

6 Spoon dough in 4 Tbsp balls onto baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-11 minutes, until the edges just turn brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to a rack to cool completely.

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Comments

Joy

Alterations: butterscotch chips instead of chocolate as I am oot z fan of dark or even semisweet chocolate. Dry cranberries I instead of raisens. Added 1/2 tsp ginger. 1. Did not flatten at all. 2. Despite trials wat nbi g edges, shortening time, etc they are consistently dry as crumbly dust, never soft or chewy even underdone! 3. Blah. No zest (pun intended) and a kind of “floury” taste. The extra trouble of butter browning & mixing 30 seconds then standing 3 minutes 3xs til shiny seems to have NOT increased the “depth” of flavor at all. All my ingredients were fresh.—btw, I did it but wonder why 1 egg & 1 yolk rather than 2 eggs?

This is quite possibly the best recipe I’ve ever found for oatmeal cookies! I’ve made them thrice, all with minor ingredient variations here and there, and they are absolutely delicious! I love the depth that comes with browning the butter and adding cinnamon and orange zest. Thank you SO much for sharing!

We just tried these last night, and they are wonderful. I made them smaller (#40 scoop, 2 tbsp size). I left them scoop-shaped on the baking sheet, and they didn’t flatten out as much as your photo – but are high little mounds, crunchy on the outside and softer on the inside. The orange flavor really goes well with the bittersweet chips I used!

Have the fun is in making your recipes. The other have of the fun is considering the comments. Coconut, cranberries with Grand Mariner, oh my! YUM!

So, (and as a huge fan of Cooking Illustrated), I came up with my own variation. I’m making 6 cookies (that fit on the cookie sheet) now and freezing the rest. No wait…..maybe…refrigerating for 36 hour and then freezing the dough in a tube shape. Awesome. Cookies on demand.

Elise, you are a true inspiration.

Ah, in this case the inspiration is all Audrey’s. But thank you! ~Elise

Two questions: Why do we brown some but not all of the butter? And would the batter be improved, do you think, by overnight refrigeration, as is now so popular for choc chip cookies?

Great questions! The browned butter technique comes from Cooks Illustrated. They don’t say why to brown some but not all the butter in their article, but I’m guessing that it’s because adding some cold butter to the melted browned butter will stop the cooking of the hot browned butter, and help keep it from getting bitter. As for the overnight refrigeration, coincidentally I had a long conversation with David Leite who “cracked the code” on the 36 hour chill time for chocolate chip cookies, and wrote an article about it for the New York Times a couple years ago. Apparently the long chill time allows for some chemical magic to take place in the dough and much richer flavors to emerge. I would say that with this recipe, it’s worth a shot trying, if you have the patience and time to chill the dough overnight or up to 36 hours. ~Elise

They sound delicious. Will be trying this receipe, and think I will make a batch with dried cranberries – may plump them up with a little Grand Marnier or Cointreau — I am addicted to dried cranberries and love to bake with them.

I made these cookies yesterday and they are wonderful! The recipie says, however, makes 16 cookies. I got nearly four dozen. Did you make them huge? Mine are big enough. They are so yummy and chewy. This one is going to be a regular.

Yes, we made them rather on the big side. Glad to know you got a bigger batch! ~Elise

Read the recipe and made the cookies 2 hours later and was glad I did! Fortunately, I keep orange peels in my freezer for just such an occasion and really think that they were an essential element. I left out the nuts because my husband won’t touch them but otherwise stuck to the recipe exactly.

If you guys finish up that batch and are looking for another cookie recipe, I was just given this recipe for chocolate chip cookies by one of the Google chefs.

Though the ingredients look pretty much similar to every chocolate chip cookie recipe out there, there’s something about this one that tasted above and beyond all of the others I’ve ever tried. It’s famous on the Google campus for being out of this world. Highly recommended.

Audrey, the cookies look perfect, and what a great idea to include the orange zest! Oatmeal cookies are THE favorite in our house. I’ve made CI’s chocolate chip cookies and I love their technique with the browned butter. The whisking of the butter mixture at several intervals brings it back to the softened butter stage so it works as it should in the cookie, and yet you get all the browned butter flavor. I have adapted other cookie recipes so I could enrich them with it too. Can’t wait to try these!